Paradox Community
Search:

 Welcome |  What is Paradox |  Paradox Folk |  Paradox Solutions |
 Interactive Paradox |  Paradox Programming |  Internet/Intranet Development |
 Support Options |  Classified Ads |  Wish List |  Submissions 





A Lurker's History of Paradox and the Paradox Community *
by Stacy Rowley

[Editor's Note: All the graphics in this article (except the two icons) are links to a larger version of the same image. Placing your mouse pointer over the graphic will show popup and status bar info about what the photograph is. The larger images open in the same smaller dialog window, so you might wish to leave that window open while reading the article.]


The Early Windows Days: the People (the Community)

While Paradox for DOS was still present, many people began moving to Paradox for Windows or at least exploring it. There were those who clung to the DOS version for a variety of reasons: their applications would have to be re-written for Windows, their hardware limited their ability to move at that point, their applications worked just fine and weren't that old, there is a cost to coming up the learning curve (and there were two curves, Windows itself and Paradox, to climb), and they chose to avoid being on the bleeding edge.

Some new people emerged also. Randy Magruder at Borland chimed in early on the PW forum soon after version 1.0 came out. Lance Leonard moved from Tech Support and became a technical writer for Paradox in 1992, then moved to Quality Assurance in 1993 before being promoted to Associate Product Manager for Paradox in January 1995 and laid off a month later! Lance also worked with Diane Rogers in the PDPP program on some projects. Lance has continued to this day on the forum and newsgroup, to offer answers and insights as his time permits.

Other Borlanders who contributed on the forum in the early versions were Laura John (Quality Assurance Manager), Matt Oliver, John Hawklyn, Bob Lenarcik, Randy Spitz, Mike Alessio, Tina Grubbe, Richard Haven, and in particular Tarik Ghbeish. Tarik Ghbeish
In addition, Paradox developers David Berg and, later, Tim Colling moved north to work for Borland for a time. Berg worked on PDOS until it was slain, and then moved to PW. Colling worked with PW.

Teresa Lanowitz worked in Sales, where she was instrumental in selling Paradox to some high profile accounts, and functioned closely with Diane Rogers on the Paradox Developer Partners Program (which later was renamed to Borland Connections). In a January 1994 Paradox Informant article, Dan Ehrmann stated that Borland had over 250 people doing nothing but supporting Paradox, including more than 120 in Technical Support.

Mike Irwin cut his teeth early on Paradox for Windows and started answering questions on the PW forum very soon after PW's release. He had a knack for answering a wide variety of questions and responded often to questions from Europe because he came from there, had worked in several countries, and knows several languages. When he started, Mike was working in Eindhoven, The Netherlands for Co-Assist, but in late 1993 accepted Dan Paolini's offer to move to his firm in the U.S. Mike is another key contributor who has continued over the years to do so.

Other frequent PW forum contributors were Greg Salcedo and Marty McIntire from ParaMatrix Solutions and Bill Todd, now living in Arizona and no longer with Kallista. Another was Norm Bowler, who contributed many uploads of generic code to the library after deciding not to write a book.

Brian Bushay by computer Brian Bushay continued his dedicated forum support across the product, but in particular earning the titles of Mr. Report and Mr. Printer. Brain, er Brian, improved his keying, having answered so many messages, but either spelling of his name is correct.


Next:
The Early Windows Days: the People (the product add-ins)


Discussion of this article


 Feedback |  Paradox Day |  Who Uses Paradox |  I Use Paradox |  Downloads 


 The information provided on this Web site is not in any way sponsored or endorsed by Corel Corporation.
 Paradox is a registered trademark of Corel Corporation.


 Modified: 15 May 2003
 Terms of Use / Legal Disclaimer


 Copyright © 2001- 2003 Paradox Community. All rights reserved. 
 Company and product names are trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective companies. 
 Authors hold the copyrights to their own works. Please contact the author of any article for details.